1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system, and deals more specifically with a method, system, and computer program product for enabling messaging systems to provide real-time digital photo sharing capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
A widely used Internet application is instant messaging. Instant messaging allows end users to select “buddies” or authorized partners and assign these buddies to “buddy groups”, automatically register a person when on-line, advertise the user's selected buddies to the user when the selected buddies register on-line, advertise the user's presence on-line to others who have selected the user as a buddy, and participate in instant messaging communication or “chatting” between two on-line users. Popular instant messaging applications include AOL's Instant MessengerSM and Microsoft's Network Messenger™ services. Because instant messaging is a text-based service, instant messaging communication is generally not burdened by the need to transfer large graphic, sound, or program files. As a result, instant messaging is a relatively quick and easy to use system.
Another widely based Internet application is web-based photo sharing. Shutterfly® is an example of such an application. Web-based photo sharing occurs when a user registers with a photo-sharing web site, uploads digital photographic images to the site, organizes them into albums, and then notifies others of the location of the photos to be shared. Notification usually occurs via electronic mail messaging. The user is usually notified via electronic mail by the person viewing the photos that the photos have been viewed.
Current web-based photo sharing is not an interactive experience between the party sharing the photos and the party(s) viewing the photos. The current experience is much like two persons holding a conversation via their answering machines. Photo sharing is much more of an appealing experience when the parties sharing the photos are able to converse real-time about the photos. Current web-based photo sharing however lacks a real-time conversation feature.
Chatting applications provide real-time conversation capability, but they lack any photo sharing features. Current real-time chat applications support sending of files between two parties, but this file transfer support lacks any photo sharing capabilities. Even if it did, only one photo at-a-time could be shared, which would be a tedious process for both parties.
What is needed is an application that provides both real-time chatting and complete photo-sharing support. Such an application would allow for instantly transmitting messages and images between parties while providing complete photo-sharing capabilities.